[Race] Time Lord

[Holocron Coder]

I need this homebrew for a character I'm creating, but wanted to get a bit of critiquing in...


Time Lord

• +4 Intelligence, +4 Charisma, +2 Wisdom
• Type: Outsider (Native)
• Medium: As Medium creatures, time lords have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• Time Lord base land speed is 30 feet.
• Lore: time lords have inherent affinity for knowledge. They gain the Bardic Knowledge class ability, using their class level instead of their bard level. This ability does not stack with Bardic Knowledge, but is instead treated as its own ability (allowing a time lord bard to make 2 rolls, taking the best result).
• Telepathy: time lords have some minor ability with telepathy. They gain telepathy to a range of 10 feet.
• Time Traveler: time lords have a special relation to time as a whole. Time lords may continue to act during Time Stop and similar spells that affect the flow of time in an area. Additionally, they are under the effects of True Seeing at all times, with the following changes: they cannot see invisible objects, do not gain darkvision, and can see into extra-dimensional spaces. This functions as an extraordinary ability.
• Language Aficionado: Speak Language is always considered a class skill for time lords.
• Regeneration: Upon death, a time lord begins regeneration, changing into a new form with a new personality and appearance, though of the same race. They are resurrected with full hit points and with no conditions in the spot that they died. Upon reviving, the player may, at their option, redistribute skills and attributes and retrain half of their levels and feats gained during those levels. This regeneration can only occur 12 times before the character is dead permanently and can only be brought back by casting both Wish and True Resurrection.
• Automatic Languages: Common and Time Lord. Bonus Languages: Any (including secret languages, such as Druidic). See the Speak Language skill.
• Favored Class: Factotum. A multiclass time lord's factotum class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.

Level Adjustment: +3

So, thoughts? Level Adjustment too low?

[Darth Stabber]

At least +3 if not more. Permanent haste, most of trueseeing, extra lives, ect. It is a very strong package.

[Jair Barik]

Horribly imbalanced and some things aren't that fluffy.
The haste isn't something I recall, neither is the time stop immunity and both are quite powerful in their own right (though the time stop is limited in use) and when combined wiuth the other bonuses that aren't off set by any negatives make it too strong for its LA. This is before even looking at the problems of regeneration. On the one hand I do get this as key to the race concept but on the other hand I strongly dislike it. Most games I've been in people rarely die that many times (ToH excluded) so it is a brilliant money saver and the class reworking encourages players to kill themselves off rather than stick with their character of they dislike how their guy is playing for a minor reason In games where that high a death count does occur over a life time then it becomes a horrible function that could easily annoy somebody who was attatched to their character only to see him die permanently.

[Holocron Coder]

Mm, aye, I can see ramping up the LA a good bit more.

As for the Haste and Time Stop abilities:
1- The haste just comes from their ability to act quickly, often, and to multitask efficiently while doing so. I could cut this out if it makes sense.
2- The Time Stop immunity shows up occasionally in the series, namely in a most recent episode:

Spoiler

Show

In the episode, there is something causing time to skip repeatedly over a portion of time, before continuing onward. The Doctor gets to see this as it is happening, rather than seeing a single flowing occurrence, as everyone else does.

As for the regeneration, that's a truly intrinsic part of the race. Yes, it makes resurrection pointless, but that's sort of the point. Additionally, it notes that after the last regeneration, they die permanently (as in, no resurrection after that, magical or not).

[Lapak]

As for the regeneration, that's a truly intrinsic part of the race. Yes, it makes resurrection pointless, but that's sort of the point. Additionally, it notes that after the last regeneration, they die permanently (as in, no resurrection after that, magical or not).

Maybe-kinda-sorta. There are a number of canon examples that seem to indicate that this is either an artificial limit or that it can be artificially bypassed - the Master gets a second set of regenerations at one point, the Doctor refers to getting additional ones, and there are other examples. Maybe allow for True Resurrection to reset the cycle?

[Holocron Coder]

Maybe-kinda-sorta. There are a number of canon examples that seem to indicate that this is either an artificial limit or that it can be artificially bypassed - the Master gets a second set of regenerations at one point, the Doctor refers to getting additional ones, and there are other examples. Maybe allow for True Resurrection to reset the cycle?

Yeah, I remember hearing something about those... Problem being, if that is allowed, then you really run into the problem described by Jair Barik. Perhaps making it a bit harder - combination True Resurrection and a Wish?

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

WWWOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Doctor Who is AWESOME!!!

The stats are a little...meh...it should be a monstrous humanoid.

[Holocron Coder]

The stats are a little...meh...it should be a monstrous humanoid.

Eh? I don't follow . Outsider (Native) makes much more sense to me

And what about the stats is 'meh'?

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

And what about the stats is 'meh'?

Regeneration does NOT work like that, watch The Christmas Invasion.

[Holocron Coder]

Regeneration does NOT work like that, watch The Christmas Invasion.

I've watched it and have no idea what you are talking about

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

I've watched it and have no idea what you are talking about

Remember all the needing lots of sleep and regaining the lost hand and stuff.

[Jair Barik]

I think in the stats area whilst it is true that timelords seem to show no real differences physically from humans (bullet still kill them, they still have trouble lifting heavy loads and they don't have super reflexes) I'm not sure of they are really wiser than anyone else as a species in general. Smarter and highly charismatic yes but some of them are kinda crazy (even the doctor has a tendency towards madness at times) and do lots of really stupid things (pushing buttons on a hunch, half suicidal plans, the Master in general etc.) so I'm not sure about the whole wisdom thing. Back to the earlier point on haste though whilst the doctor is seen multitasking I feel that sort of trait would be better shown in something akin to the Synad's multitasking powers (I don't recall any time lords naturally moving twice as fast as the average human being).

[Nidogg]

Defenetly more than +3 That is very overpowered... think a levl one time lord, He can bardic knowledge as a level 1 bard (meh) Get good casting abilitys (Wooo!) ((reason that mental stats are rarely added to without a big cost in LA)) And NEVER DIE!!!!!! Earliest form of (core) Ressing is a re-encarnate spell at the lowest lvl7 pluus a ressed cha will still (i.e) still die if he looks into a Bodak's eyes in the same probability (if not less because of level loss) that kiled him in the first time. David tennant here can say... hmm.... "Lets increase cha this time Damn bodak wont best me this time" With this "reshuffle" ability dieing will be greatly reduced. And think, how many deaths have you had in your RPG carreer? Most of Mine have been lucky monsters, with the reshuffle your 'lord can prevent that luck from playing a part...giving your lord nigh invincibility... and If he does by some trick (maybey druid/blighter) he could always (through undo a past misfortune) get the miricle/wish/reality revision and voop! You have a 'lord who is now TRULY unkillable! He regenerates at 10 times the rate of the Tarrasque! Even wish/ect probably wouldnt affect him. Also the act normally in time stop, Do you realise what that means????? HE CAN ATTACK EVERY TURN WHILE HIS OPPONENT CAN DO NOTHING!!! probs a +7 LA race, like the rakasha maybey more....

And the master Has calculated madness... NEVER DENY HIS POWER!!!!

[Mulletmanalive]

Regeneration does NOT work like that, watch The Christmas Invasion.

Ironically, you choose as your example an episode where your statement applies just as well to the cited regeneration.

Such things have not happened before or since, though the intense pain and energy discharges seem to have remained canon.

The rules presented here would work alright to represent the previous regeneratations, barring that the vic should be in a coma for a day while it occurs [not sleeping a lot, all the others were out for the count] and that the personality changes completely [reason i dislike Matt Smith is that the character is so damn similar to the previous form].

In practical terms, however, Regeneration needn't be mechanical; it's basically an agreement between player and GM as to how the new character will arrive and what level he will be. Often a GM allows the new character to be within 2 levels of the dead one; the difference here is basically non-existent.

[felinoel]

[*]Regeneration: Upon death, a time lord begins regeneration, changing into a new form with a new personality and appearance, though of the same race.

Wait a minute, was like the fourth (or third?) Master a snake thing?

[The Tygre]

Shouldn't the second heart grant some kind of special ability?

[bloodtide]

This is not so much a 'Race' as it is a 'Doctor Template'. And even more so it's only for the new Doctor Who, where you only have one person of the Time Lord race to base anything on.

Take intelligence. Yes, both the Doctor and the Master are quite intelligent...but the rest of the Time Lords...eh. The others don't come off as that smart.

The same is true of charisma. Yes, the Doctor is very charismatic....but the rest of the Time Lords? Not a chance....

Outsider? Why would you think so? Gallefry is a planet in the Milky Way, it does not exist on the Astral Plane or something.

Telepathy. Eh, sure the Doctor says he has this every couple of shows. But just about never has the Doctor ever demonstrated any type of telepathic ability. Have you ever seen the Doctor 'speak to someone in their mind'?

True seeing just does not fit. Time Lords have Time Seeing, it would be a whole new ability.

Speak Language-Time Lords don't 'speak languages', they use their 'telepathy' to automatically translate. It would be more accurate to say 'Time Lords have the Tongues spell permanently'.

[Zeb The Troll]

Troll Patrol: This thread's a bit out of date. Closed.